First Fifty Years - a project collating Cape of Good Hope records

A project to transcribe and publish copies of records relating to individuals who lived at the Cape (Cabo da Boa Esperança / de Caep de Goede Hoop / Die Kaap die Goeie Hoop) during the first decades of the settlement after 1652

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The material on this website is subject to copyright.Facts (names, dates, and places) are not copyright. You are free to transcribe them into your data. But I have created the narratives, sentences, and citations; they are copyright and may not be used without my express written permission. You may not add them to your tree on Ancestry, nor in the data or profile sections on Geni, nor anywhere else, unless you have obtained my written permission. Many of the images are also copyright. You may not copy them without the consent of the copyright holders. You must use the correct attribution and citation, viz.: Robertson, Delia. The First Fifty Years Project. http://www.e-family.co.za/ffy/

Family 2

1 September 1666, the name of Krotoa was written in the record as Eva.4Krotoa of the Goringhaicona was also known as Eva Meerhoff.10

Notes

If you are interested in knowing more about this founding mother, you should read Mansell Upham's article available here: In a kind of custody - for Eva's sake... Who speaks for KROTOA?Everything we know about the Khoe and San (Bushmen) in the first decades of the settlement at the Cape, comes from records (journals, letters, etc.) written by members of the settler population. We do not have the words, perspectives, or knowledge of these original people, except as quoted by the settlers who did not know their language, and who routinely commented on their lifestyle, customs and traditions as individuals who clearly saw themselves as superior. They often wrote with disdain, suspicion and prejudice, and if the expected action did not materialise and confirm the suspicion/prejudice, this was frequently turned on its head, to show ill-intent on the part of the indigene(s). A complete picture never emerges. Intrepretation of these records is therefor always going to be constrained by this lack of balance.

Slave Transactions

On 23 October 1669 Jan Vos, owned by the widow of Pieter van Meerhoff, Krotoa of theGoringhaicona, was placed in the care of the Church Council.11

Governor's Journal

On 22 November 1663 Zacharias Wagenaer noted in his journal: This morning we were told that our interpretess Krotoa of theGoringhaicona who had disappeared last Friday with both her children, without saying a word, was staying in the country with a freeman named Thielman Hendricx , whose house is situated right in the way leading to the aforesaid Hottentoos; but as her brother-in-law, Oedasoa, takes little interest in her (as it is said) we doubt whether we shall fetch her back, or leave her there, as this lewd vixen (die lichtvaerdige prije) has often played us this trick, throwing aside her clean and neat clothes, and instead, using stinking old cattle hides, just like all other dirty Hottentoo women do.12

Citations

[S550] Mansell Upham 'In a kind of custody: For Eva's sake; who speaks for Krotoa' 4 August 2010, "p.6."

[S418] Anna J. Böeseken, Slaves and Free Blacks at the Cape 1658-1700 (Cape Town: Tafelberg, 1977), pp. 127-128.23.10.1669, III, p. 303: Jan Vos, a slave belonging to the widow of Jan [Pieter] van Meerhoff, was placed in the care of the Church Council. In the margin a note added on 1.1.1670 states that Jan Vos had been hired out to Jan Verhagen for one month.. Hereinafter cited as Slaves and Free Blacks at the Cape 1658-1700.